The scene prior to the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) Sprints Championships was remarkably similar to last year’s, with the Harvard men’s heavyweight crew riding high after earning the top seed on the strength of an undefeated season. But the scene afterwards was far preferable for the Crimson this year.

The Harvard first varsity eight exacted revenge on Wisconsin for last year’s defeat, capturing its first Eastern Sprints crown since 1990—the 22nd in program history—and the Ivy League title.

“The varsity hasn’t won Sprints in a long time,” senior Mike Blomquist said. “Because the competition now is so good, winning was sweet.”

The Crimson crews combined to win the Rowe Cup as well, tallying 40 points—three more than the Badgers, who were seen by many as the pre-race favorite.

“Wisconsin returned six or seven guys to their boat from last year and we returned three from a very strong graduating class,” Blomquist said. “We didn’t really know where we’d stand.”

It didn’t take very long to find out. Building off a clean start, the first varsity seized the lead early on and never looked back.

“We had a really strong start, which we’ve had all season,” junior stroke Kip McDaniel said. “We were up two or three seats after the first 25 strokes.”

Fighting off strong headwinds, Harvard maintained a brisk base pace, slowly inching forward and away from the main pack despite a relatively unfavorable lane assignment.

Wisconsin was assigned to a lane where the wind had less of an impact.

“They had the favored lane because of winds,” McDaniel said. “But it didn’t bother us.”

Little did on the afternoon, as the Crimson slowly built a commanding lead through a consistent exercise of power that trumped the Badgers’.

“Our base pace was really strong,” McDaniel said. “We were moving all the time. We sprinted a bit at the end, but most of the margin was just our base speed.”

Building a one-length lead by the midway point, Harvard fed on the energy of its “engine room”.

“The middle guys on the boat are just much stronger this year,” McDaniel said. “I think this year we both rowed well and were really powerful. We added Aaron Holzapfel and Malcolm Howard, the two sophomores on the boat. And they’re just exceptionally strong—just really strong racers and really strong, powerful kids.”

Continuing to pull away over the last 1000 meters, the first varsity boat crossed the line in 6:04.1 during the Grand Finals, besting Wisconsin by 4.74 seconds with half a boat length of open water between the two squads—the same margin by which the second varsity boat won.